System and method for facilitating communication between affiliated players in an online game via communication mediums external to the online game

ABSTRACT

Affiliated players in an online game often coordinate activity and communication in the online game. Affiliated players may want to coordinate activities and/or communicate with each even when one or more affiliated players may not be logged into the online game. Further, persons of higher status in an affiliation may want to control the extent to which other players in the affiliation are sent messages external to the game. As such, one aspect of the disclosure relates to facilitating communication to a group of related players of an online game outside of communication mediums available via the game, where the ability to communicate and the type of communication may depend upon permissions associated with a player in a group of affiliated players.

FIELD

The disclosure relates to facilitating communication to a group ofrelated players of an online game outside of communication mediumsavailable via the game, where the ability to communicate and the type ofcommunication may depend upon permissions associated with a player in agroup of affiliated players.

BACKGROUND

Various techniques for facilitating communication between players in anonline game exist. Conventional gaming systems may facilitate off-linecommunicate between players based on in-game aliases and may provideprivate in-game communication channels for teams of players. Otherconventional gaming systems may allow a user to control which users in avirtual world may see messages posted to an interactive space in thevirtual world. Other conventional gaming systems may allow off-linecommunication between two players that are both participating in a gamesession. Conventional gaming systems may also describe determining therelative importance of a message to a user based on a relationshipbetween the user and the sender of the message.

Conventional systems, however, suffer from various drawbacks andinefficiencies relating to facilitating communication to a group ofrelated players of an online game outside of communication mediumsavailable via the online game. For example, conventional gaming systemsmay fail to facilitate communication to a group of related players,where the ability to communicate and the type of communication maydepend upon permissions associated with a player in the group of relatedplayers.

SUMMARY

Affiliated players in an online game often coordinate activity andcommunication in the online game. Affiliated players may want tocoordinate activities and/or communicate with each even when one or moreaffiliated players may not be logged into the online game. Further,persons of higher status in an affiliation may want to control theextent to which other players in the affiliation are sent messagesexternal to the game. As such, one aspect of the disclosure relates tofacilitating communication to a group of related players of an onlinegame outside of communication mediums available via the game, where theability to communicate and the type of communication may depend uponpermissions associated with a player in a group of affiliated players.

A system configured to facilitate communication to a group of relatedplayers of an online game outside of communication mediums available viathe game may include one or more processors configured to executecompute program modules. The program modules may comprise a spacemodule, a group module, a communications module, and/or other modules.

A space module may be configured to execute an instance of a virtualspace in which an online game takes place, and to implement the instanceof the virtual space to facilitate presentation of views of the virtualspace to a player in an interface. The space module may be configured tofacilitate interaction of the player with the virtual space by executingactions in the instance of the virtual space in response to commandsinput by the player through the interface.

A group module may be configured to manage one or more affiliationswithin the virtual space. An individual affiliation may comprise adiscrete group of players with a relationship having a functionalsignificance within the virtual space, where an individual player in theaffiliation is associated with a respective status in the affiliation.

A communication module may be configured to receive a request from aplayer in a first affiliation to communicate to one or more otherplayers in the first affiliation. The configuration module may beconfigured to determine whether to permit the communication based on astatus associated with the player in the first affiliation. Responsiveto a determination that the status associated with the player permitsthe player to communicate to the one or more other players in the firstaffiliation, the configuration module may be configured to send thecommunication to the one or more other players via a communicationmedium external to the online game

A computer-implemented method of facilitating communication to relatedplayers of an online game via communication mediums external to theonline game may be implemented in a computer system comprising one ormore physical processors. The method may comprise: executing an instanceof a virtual space; implementing the instance of the virtual space tofacilitate participation by the one or more players in a game within thespace by determining view information from the instance and transmittingthe view information to one or more client computing platformsassociated with the one or more players that facilitate presentation ofviews of the virtual space to the one or more players by the one or moreclient computing platforms; managing one or more affiliations within thevirtual space, an individual affiliation comprising a discrete group ofplayers with a relationship having a functional significance within thevirtual space, wherein an individual player in the affiliation isassociated with a respective status in the affiliation; receiving arequest from a player in a first affiliation to communicate to one ormore other players in the first affiliation; determining whether topermit the communication based on a status associated with the player inthe first affiliation; and responsive to a determination that the statusassociated with the player permits the player to communicate to the oneor more other players in the first affiliation, sending thecommunication to the one or more other players via a communicationmedium external to the online game.

A non-transitory electronic storage media may store information relatedto facilitating communication to related players of an online game viacommunication mediums external to the online game. The storedinformation may comprise a memory configured to store informationrelated to an online game and instructions configured to cause a clientcomputing platform to: execute an instance of a virtual space; implementthe instance of the virtual space to facilitate participation by the oneor more players in a game within the space by determining viewinformation from the instance and transmitting the view information toone or more client computing platforms associated with the one or moreplayers that facilitate presentation of views of the virtual space tothe one or more players by the one or more client computing platforms;manage one or more affiliations within the virtual space, an individualaffiliation comprising a discrete group of players with a relationshiphaving a functional significance within the virtual space, wherein anindividual player in the affiliation is associated with a respectivestatus in the affiliation; receive a request from a player in a firstaffiliation to communicate to one or more other players in the firstaffiliation; determine whether to permit the communication based on astatus associated with the player in the first affiliation; andresponsive to a determination that the status associated with the playerpermits the player to communicate to the one or more other players inthe first affiliation, send the communication to the one or more otherplayers via a communication medium external to the online game.

These and other objects, features, and characteristics of the systemand/or method disclosed herein, as well as the methods of operation andfunctions of the related elements of structure and the combination ofparts and economies of manufacture, will become more apparent uponconsideration of the following description and the appended claims withreference to the accompanying drawings, all of which form a part of thisspecification, wherein like reference numerals designate correspondingparts in the various figures. It is to be expressly understood, however,that the drawings are for the purpose of illustration and descriptiononly and are not intended as a definition of the limits of theinvention. As used in the specification and in the claims, the singularform of “a”, “an”, and “the” include plural referents unless the contextclearly dictates otherwise.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a system configured to facilitate communication torelated players of an online game outside of communication mediumsavailable via the online game, according to various aspects of theinvention.

FIG. 2A illustrates an exemplary table of a uniform set of communicationpermissions used for the online game, according to various aspects ofthe invention.

FIG. 2B illustrates an exemplary table of communication permissions peraffiliation, according to various aspects of the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary method of facilitating communication torelated players of an online game outside of communication mediumsavailable via the online game, according to various aspects of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 10 configured to facilitate communication toa group of related players of an online game outside of communicationmediums available via the game. In some implementations, system 10 mayinclude a game server 12. The game server 12 may host a game space inwhich an online game takes place. The game server 12 may be configuredto communicate with one or more client computing platforms 14 accordingto a client/server architecture. The users may access system 10 and/orthe virtual space via client computing platforms 14.

The game server 12 may be configured to execute one or more computerprogram modules. The computer program modules may include one or more ofa user module 18, a space module 20, a group module 22, a communicationmodule 24, and/or other modules.

The user module 18 may be configured to access and/or manage one or moreuser profiles and/or user information associated with users of thesystem 10. The one or more user profiles and/or user information mayinclude information stored by game server 12, one or more of the clientcomputing platforms 14, and/or other storage locations. The userprofiles may include, for example, information identifying users (e.g.,a username or handle, a number, an identifier, and/or other identifyinginformation) within the virtual space, security login information (e.g.,a login code or password), virtual space account information,subscription information, virtual currency account information (e.g.,related to currency held in credit for a user), relationship information(e.g., information related to relationships between users in the virtualspace), affiliation information (e.g., information related to one ormore affiliations associated with the user), virtual space usageinformation, demographic information associated with users, interactionhistory among users in the virtual space, information stated by users,purchase information of users, information related to user-specifiedevents (e.g., one or more conditions and/or game state information thatmay indicate an event specified by the user), browsing history of users,a client computing platform identification associated with a user, aphone number associated with a user, and/or other information related tousers.

Space module 20 may be configured to implement the instance of thevirtual space executed by the computer modules. The instance of thevirtual space may reflect the state of the virtual space. The instanceof the virtual space may be used to push state information to clientsfor implementation on the clients, may be used to verify stateinformation generated on clients executing expressions of the instancelocally, and/or for other purposes. State information may includeinformation about the state of the virtual space such as, withoutlimitation, position information of one or more objects, topographyinformation, object status/shape information, battle information, scoreinformation, user or character progress information, user inventoryinformation, progress information for one or more activities or actions,view information describing a view of the virtual space, and/or otherinformation that describes the state of the virtual space.

Expressions of the instance executed on the clients facilitatepresentation of views on the clients of the virtual space. Expressionsof the instance executed on the clients may be configured to simplypresent views of the virtual space based on the state information (e.g.,via streaming view information, object/position information, and/orother state information) received from space module 20. Expressions ofthe instance executed on the clients may include space logic thateffectively provides for execution of a limited version of the instanceon a client that is synchronized and/or verified with state informationreceived from space module 20. The view presented on a given client maycorrespond to a location in the virtual space (e.g., the location fromwhich the view is taken, the location the view depicts, and/or otherlocations), a zoom ratio, a dimensionality of objects, a point-of-view,and/or view parameters. One or more of the view parameters may beselectable by the user.

The instance of the virtual space may comprise a simulated space that isaccessible by users via clients (e.g., client computing platforms 14)that present the views of the virtual space to a user. The simulatedspace may have a topography, express ongoing real-time interaction byone or more users, and/or include one or more objects positioned withinthe topography that are capable of locomotion within the topography. Insome instances, the topography may be a 2-dimensional topography. Inother instances, the topography may be a 3-dimensional topography. Thetopography may include dimensions of the space, and/or surface featuresof a surface or objects that are “native” to the space. In someinstances, the topography may describe a surface (e.g., a groundsurface) that runs through at least a substantial portion of the space.In some instances, the topography may describe a volume with one or morebodies positioned therein (e.g., a simulation of gravity-deprived spacewith one or more celestial bodies positioned therein). The instanceexecuted by the computer modules may be synchronous, asynchronous,and/or semi-synchronous.

The above description of the views of the virtual space determined fromthe instance executed by space module 20 is not intended to be limiting.The virtual space may be presented in a more limited, or more rich,manner. For example, views of the virtual space may be selected from alimited set of graphics depicting an event in a given place within thevirtual space. The views may include additional content (e.g., text,audio, pre-stored video content, and/or other content) that describesparticulars of the current state of the place, beyond the relativelygeneric graphics. For example, a view may include a generic battlegraphic with a textual description of the opponents to be confronted.Other representations of individual places within the virtual space arecontemplated.

Within the instance of the virtual space executed by space module 20,users may control characters, objects, simulated physical phenomena(e.g., wind, rain, earthquakes, and/or other phenomena), and/or otherelements within the virtual space to interact with the virtual spaceand/or each other. The user characters may include avatars. As usedherein, the term “user character” may refer to an object (or group ofobjects) present in the virtual space that represents an individualuser. The user character may be controlled by the user with which it isassociated. The user controlled element(s) may move through and interactwith the virtual space (e.g., non-user characters in the virtual space,other objects in the virtual space). The user controlled elementscontrolled by and/or associated with a given user may be created and/orcustomized by the given user. The user may have an “inventory” ofvirtual goods and/or currency that the user can use (e.g., bymanipulation of a user character or other user controlled element,and/or other items) within the virtual space.

The users may participate in the instance of the virtual space bycontrolling one or more of the available user controlled elements in thevirtual space. Control may be exercised through control inputs and/orcommands input by the users through client computing platforms 14. Theusers may interact with each other through communications exchangedwithin the virtual space. Such communications may include one or more oftextual chat, instant messages, private messages, voice communications,and/or other communications. Communications may be received and enteredby the users via respective client computing platforms 14.Communications may be routed to and from the appropriate users throughgame server 12 (e.g., through space module 20).

The group module 22 may be configured to establish and/or manageaffiliations within individual virtual spaces. A given affiliationwithin a given virtual space may include a discrete group of users. Forexample, a first affiliation within a first virtual space may include afirst user, a second user, and/or a discrete set of other users.Examples of an affiliation may include an alliance, a guild, a faction,a club, an association, a group, a crew, a band, a clan, a family,fellowship, a gang, a league, a partnership, a syndicate, a society, atribe, a troop, a company, and/or other affiliations that include adiscrete group of individuals.

The group module 22 may establish affiliations based on affiliationrequests and acceptances received from users. Establishment of anaffiliation may be initiated by a single communication (e.g., a request)initiated by a given user requesting an affiliation between the givenuser and one or more other users. Establishment of an affiliation mayrequire a first communication from the given user to be approved by theone or more other users. According to some implementations, the groupmodule 22 may establish affiliations intrinsically within the virtualspace (e.g., faction-mates are formed based on avatar configuration),through recognized user behavior over time (e.g., raid members orplayer-versus-player partners), and/or other approaches for establishingaffiliations.

Users belonging to an affiliation may have relationships with some or nofunctional significance, purpose, and/or impact within a given virtualspace. Such relationships within the affiliation may include aleadership structure, a role structure, and/or other relationshipswithin the affiliation. The functional significance of a relationshipbetween users may vary across different virtual spaces. For example, arelationship between the first user and the second user in the firstaffiliation within the first virtual space may have a differentfunctional significance than a relationship between the first user andthe second user in a second affiliation in a second virtual space. Byway of non-limiting example of the functional significance of anaffiliation within an exemplary virtual space, affiliates within avirtual space may have certain capabilities among each other that arenot available to non-affiliates such as sharing and/or trading goods,services, player characters, and/or items in the virtual space; and/orother capabilities among users belonging to an affiliation.

The group module 22 may be configured to store information related toone or more affiliations. For example, for a first affiliation, thegroup module 22 may store information related to the discrete group ofplayers of the first affiliation and information related to a set ofstatuses associated with the first affiliation. An individual player inthe affiliation may be associated with one or more statuses in theaffiliation. An individual status may represent a ranking, a position ina hierarchy, a group of available functions, a group of availableabilities, and/or other characteristics related to a role in anaffiliation.

The information related to the set of statuses for the first affiliationmay be associated with a respective set of communication permissions. Anindividual communication permissions may indicate one or more of: one ormore types of external communication mediums, one or more statuses,and/or other components related to external communication permissions.The one or more types of external communication mediums may indicate,for example, the types of external communication mediums via which aplayer may communicate to other players in the affiliation. The one ormore statuses may comprise the statuses of players to whom a player withthe individual communication permissions may provide externalcommunications.

The communication module 24 may be configured to provide acommunications interface for presentation to individual users. Thecommunications interface may be presented to given user via a clientcomputing platform 14 associated with that user. The communicationsinterface may be configured to enable a given user to observe in-comingcommunications and provide out-going communications. According to someimplementations, the communications interface may be presented within avirtual space provided by game server 12. In some implementations, thecommunications interface may be presented outside of a virtual space.For example, the communications interface may be presented via a webpagethat includes neither a virtual space nor a virtual environment. Asanother example, the communications interface may be provided via amobile application on a mobile implementation of a client computingplatform 14.

The communication module 24 may be configured to receive a request froma player in a first affiliation to communicate to one or more otherplayers in the first affiliation. Based on a status associated with theplayer in the first affiliation, the communication module 24 maydetermine whether to permit the communication to occur. For example,based on a status associated with the player, the communication module24 may access an associated communication permissions associated withthat status in the first affiliation. The associated communicationpermissions may include information related to statuses of other playersto whom the player may provide external communications.

In some implementations, the type of external communication medium bywhich the player in the first affiliation wants to communicate may alsobe compared with external communication medium types in thecommunication permissions. The types of external communication mediumsassociated with a communication permissions may include, for example,voicemail, skype communication, email, text message, SMS, FACETIME,and/or other types of external communication mediums. The types ofexternal communication mediums are not limited to the examples describedherein. In some implementations, the communication interface mayfacilitate communication via available external communication mediums inthe online game.

In some implementations, a uniform set of communication permissions maybe used for each affiliation. In some of these implementations, statusesused for affiliations may be the same or similar for each affiliation.An administrator and/or other game entity may update, add, revise,delete, and/or otherwise manage communication permissions for the game.One or more players in an affiliation may request the administratorand/or other game entity to update communication permissions associatedwith a specific status. The one or more players in the affiliation mayhave permissions that indicate that those players have the ability tomake such a request.

FIG. 2A illustrates an exemplary table of a uniform set of communicationpermissions used for the online game, according to various aspects ofthe invention. The table may include a plurality of entries for arespective plurality of communication permissions. A communicationpermissions entry may comprise, for example, information related to anidentification of a communication permissions, associated statuses withthe communication permissions, external communication medium typesassociated with the communication permissions, and/or other attributes.As shown in the table of FIG. 2A, a status may be associated with only asingle communication permissions. In some implementations, a status maybe associated with multiple communication permissions.

In some implementations, one or more different communication permissionsmay be associated with each affiliation, with groups of affiliations,with affiliations associated with a specific virtual world, affiliationsassociated with a territory, affiliations associated with a shard,and/or other associated affiliations. An administrator, and/or one ormore players of an affiliation may update, add, revise, delete, and/orotherwise manage communication permissions for the affiliation. Forexample, a status of a player in the affiliation may be used todetermine whether the player has permission to manage communicationpermissions for the affiliation.

FIG. 2B illustrates an exemplary table of communication permissions peraffiliation, according to various aspects of the invention. The tablemay include a plurality of entries for a respective plurality ofcommunication permissions. A communication permissions entry maycomprise, for example, information related to an identification of acommunication permissions, information related to affiliationsassociated with the communication permissions, status of theaffiliations that are associated with the communication permissions,external communication medium types associated with the communicationpermissions, and/or other attributes.

The associated statuses in FIGS. 2A and 2B may set forth individually.In some implementations, a plurality of groups of associated statusesmay be stored, where each individual group may comprise a different setof associated statuses. The tables of communication permissions mayreference a group of associated statuses instead of one or moreindividual associated statuses.

The types of external communication mediums in FIGS. 2A and 2B may setforth individually. In some implementations, a plurality of groups oftypes of external communication mediums may be stored, where eachindividual group may comprise a different set of types of externalcommunication mediums. The tables of communication permissions mayreference a group of external communication medium types instead of oneor more individual types of external communication mediums.

The associated affiliations in FIG. 2B may set forth individually. Insome implementations, a plurality of groups of associated affiliationsmay be stored, where each individual group may comprise a different setof associated affiliations. The tables of communication permissions mayreference a group of associated affiliations instead of one or moreindividual associated affiliations.

For each type of group (e.g., groups of external communication mediumtypes, associated statuses, associated affiliations, and/or other grouptypes), an administrator and/or other game entity may manage the one ormore types of groups. In some implementations, a player with aparticular status in an affiliation (e.g., one or more players withhighest statuses in the affiliation) may manage one or more types ofgroups.

Returning to FIG. 1, responsive to a determination that the one or moreother players in the first affiliation to whom the player wants tocommunicate are associated with statuses included in the communicationpermissions for the player, the communication module 24 may permit thecommunication to occur. For example, the communication module 24 mayaccess a table of communication permissions to determine whether topermit the communication to occur. The communication module 24 and/orthe space module 20 may facilitate the performance of the communication.

The game server 12, client computing platforms 14, and/or externalresources may be operatively linked via one or more electroniccommunication links. For example, such electronic communication linksmay be established, at least in part, via a network such as the Internetand/or other networks. It will be appreciated that this is not intendedto be limiting, and that the scope of this disclosure includesimplementations in which game servers 12, client computing platforms 14,and/or external resources may be operatively linked via some othercommunication media.

Game server 12 may include electronic storage 30, one or more processors16, and/or other components. Game server 12 may include communicationlines, or ports to enable the exchange of information with a network 50and/or other computing platforms 14. Illustration of game server 12 inFIG. 1 is not intended to be limiting. Game server 12 may include aplurality of hardware, software, and/or firmware components operatingtogether to provide the functionality attributed herein to game server12. For example, game server 12 may be implemented by a cloud ofcomputing platforms operating together as game server 12.

Electronic storage 30 may comprise non-transitory storage media thatelectronically stores information. The electronic storage media ofelectronic storage 30 may include one or both of system storage that isprovided integrally (i.e., substantially non-removable) with game server12 and/or removable storage that is removably connectable to game server12 via, for example, a port (e.g., a USB port, a firewire port, etc.) ora drive (e.g., a disk drive, etc.). Electronic storage 30 may includeone or more of optically readable storage media (e.g., optical disks,etc.), magnetically readable storage media (e.g., magnetic tape,magnetic hard drive, floppy drive, etc.), electrical charge-basedstorage media (e.g., EEPROM, RAM, etc.), solid-state storage media(e.g., flash drive, etc.), and/or other electronically readable storagemedia. Electronic storage 30 may include one or more virtual storageresources (e.g., cloud storage, a virtual private network, and/or othervirtual storage resources). Electronic storage 30 may store softwarealgorithms, information determined by processor 16, information receivedfrom game server 12, information received from client computingplatforms 14, and/or other information that enables game server 12 tofunction as described herein.

Processor(s) 16 is configured to provide information processingcapabilities in game server 12. As such, processor 16 may include one ormore of a digital processor, an analog processor, a digital circuitdesigned to process information, an analog circuit designed to processinformation, a state machine, and/or other mechanisms for electronicallyprocessing information. Although processor 16 is shown in FIG. 1 as asingle entity, this is for illustrative purposes only. In someimplementations, processor 16 may include a plurality of processingunits. These processing units may be physically located within the samedevice, or processor 16 may represent processing functionality of aplurality of devices operating in coordination. The processor 16 may beconfigured to execute modules 18, 20, 22 and 24. Processor 16 may beconfigured to execute modules 18, 20, 22, and 24 by software; hardware;firmware; some combination of software, hardware, and/or firmware;and/or other mechanisms for configuring processing capabilities onprocessor 16. As used herein, the term “module” may refer to anycomponent or set of components that perform the functionality attributedto the module. This may include one or more physical processors duringexecution of processor readable instructions, the processor readableinstructions, circuitry, hardware, storage media, or any othercomponents.

It should be appreciated that although modules 18, 20, 22, and 24 areillustrated in FIG. 1 as being implemented within a single processingunit, in implementations in which processor includes multiple processingunits, one or more of modules 18, 20, 22, and 24 may be implementedremotely from the other modules. The description of the functionalityprovided by the different modules 18, 20, 22, and 24 described below isfor illustrative purposes, and is not intended to be limiting, as any ofmodules 18, 20, 22, and 24 may provide more or less functionality thanis described. For example, one or more of modules 18, 20, 22, and 24 maybe eliminated, and some or all of its functionality may be provided byother ones of modules 18, 20, 22, and 24. As another example, processor16 may be configured to execute one or more additional modules that mayperform some or all of the functionality attributed below to one ofmodules 18, 20, 22, and 24.

A given client computing platform 14 may include one or more processorsconfigured to execute computer program modules. The computer programmodules may be configured to enable an expert or user associated withthe given client computing platform 14 to interface with system 10, gameserver 12, and/or external resources, and/or provide other functionalityattributed herein to client computing platforms 14. By way ofnon-limiting example, the given client computing platform 14 may includeone or more of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a handheldcomputer, a tablet computing platform, a NetBook, a Smartphone, a gamingconsole, and/or other computing platforms.

FIG. 3 illustrates a method 50 of facilitating communication to relatedplayers of an online game via communication mediums external to theonline game. The operations of method 50 presented below are intended tobe illustrative. In some embodiments, method 50 may be accomplished withone or more additional operations not described, and/or without one ormore of the operations discussed. Additionally, the order in which theoperations of method 50 are illustrated in FIG. 2 and described below isnot intended to be limiting.

In some embodiments, method 50 may be implemented in one or moreprocessing devices (e.g., a digital processor, an analog processor, adigital circuit designed to process information, an analog circuitdesigned to process information, a state machine, and/or othermechanisms for electronically processing information). The one or moreprocessing devices may include one or more devices executing some or allof the operations of method 34 in response to instructions storedelectronically on an electronic storage medium. The one or moreprocessing devices may include one or more devices configured throughhardware, firmware, and/or software to be specifically designed forexecution of one or more of the operations of method 50.

At an operation 52, an instance of a virtual space may be executed. Insome implementations, operation 52 may be performed by a space modulethe same as or similar to space module 20 (shown in FIG. 1 and describedabove).

At an operation 54, the executed instance of the virtual space may beimplemented to determine view information. The view information maydefine views to be presented to users via client computing platforms. Insome implementations, operation 54 may be performed by a space modulethe same as or similar to space module 20 (shown in FIG. 1 and describedabove).

At an operation 56, one or more affiliations within the virtual spacemay be managed. In some implementations, operation 56 may be performedby a user selection module the same as or similar to group module 22(shown in FIG. 1 and described above).

At an operation 58, a request may be received from a first player in anaffiliation to communicate to one or more other players in the firstaffiliation. In some implementations, operation 58 may be performed by acustomer service module the same as or similar to communication module24 (shown in FIG. 1 and described above).

At an operation 60, a determination may be made as to whether to permitthe communication based on a status associated with the player in thefirst affiliation. In some implementations, operation 60 may beperformed by a customer service module the same as or similar tocommunication module 24 (shown in FIG. 1 and described above).

At an operation 62, the communication may be sent to the one or moreother players via a communication medium external to the online game,responsive to a determination that the status associated with the playerpermits the player to communicate to the one or more other players inthe first affiliation. In some implementations, operation 62 may beperformed by a customer service module the same as or similar tocommunication module 24 (shown in FIG. 1 and described above).

Although the system(s) and/or method(s) of this disclosure have beendescribed in detail for the purpose of illustration based on what iscurrently considered to be the most practical and preferredimplementations, it is to be understood that such detail is solely forthat purpose and that the disclosure is not limited to the disclosedimplementations, but, on the contrary, is intended to covermodifications and equivalent arrangements that are within the spirit andscope of the appended claims. For example, it is to be understood thatthe present disclosure contemplates that, to the extent possible, one ormore features of any implementation can be combined with one or morefeatures of any other implementation.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system configured to facilitatecommunication between players in an affiliation within an online game,wherein the communication includes use of a communication mediumexternal to the online game, the system comprising: one or moreprocessors configured by machine-readable instructions to: execute aninstance of a virtual space in which the online game takes place, andimplement the instance of the virtual space to transmit game stateinformation over a network to a client computing platform associatedwith a player to facilitate presentation of views of the virtual spaceto the player; facilitate interaction of the player in the online gamein response to information received over the network from the clientcomputing platform associated with the player; manage an affiliationwithin the online game, wherein the affiliation includes a discretegroup of players, wherein the player is included in the affiliation, andwherein the player is associated with communication permissions; receivea request from the player to initiate a communication to one or moreother players in the affiliation, wherein the communication includes useof the communication medium that is external to the online game;determine whether to permit the communication based on the communicationpermissions associated with the player; and responsive to adetermination to permit the communication, initiate the communication tothe one or more other players in the affiliation through thecommunication medium that is external to the online game.
 2. The systemof claim 1, wherein the affiliation includes relationships that havefunctional significance within the online game.
 3. The system of claim1, wherein the request defines a type of communication medium externalto the online game.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the communicationmedium comprises one of: voicemail, email, text message, sms, or socialmedia post.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processorsare configured by machine-readable instructions to: store informationrelated to the affiliation, wherein the information related to theaffiliation comprises information related to the discrete group ofplayers in the affiliation and information related to a set of statusesassociated with the affiliation.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein therequest from the player is received through a communications interfacethat is presented within the online game to the player.
 7. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the request from the player is received through acommunications interface that is presented through a mobile applicationto the player.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the request from theplayer is received through a communications interface that is presentedoutside of the virtual space.
 9. The system of claim 5, wherein the oneor more processors are configured by machine-readable instructions to:store a set of communication permissions associated with the set ofstatuses, wherein individual communication permissions indicate one ormore types of external communication mediums and one or more statuses.10. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more processors areconfigured by machine-readable instructions to determine that thecommunication permissions associated with the player permit the playerto communicate to the one or more other players in the affiliation by:determining whether a particular communication permission associatedwith the player comprises one or more statuses associated with therespective one or more other players.
 11. The system of claim 10,wherein the one or more processors are configured by machine-readableinstructions to determine that the communication permissions associatedwith the player permit the player to communicate to the one or moreother players in the first affiliation by: determining whether thecommunication permissions associated with the player comprises aparticular type of communication medium.
 12. The system of claim 1,wherein the one or more processors are configured by machine-readableinstructions to: responsive to a determination that the communicationpermissions associated with the player do not permit the player tocommunicate to the one or more other players in the first affiliation,notify the player that the communication is not permitted.
 13. Thesystem of claim 12, wherein the one or more processors are configured bymachine-readable instructions to: responsive to a determination that theplayer would like to request a second player to communicate to the oneor more other players in the affiliation, send a request to the secondplayer to perform the communication.
 14. A computer-implemented methodof facilitating communication between players in an affiliation withinan online game, wherein the communication includes use of acommunication medium external to the online game, the method beingimplemented in a computer system comprising one or more physicalprocessors, the method comprising: executing an instance of a virtualspace in which the online game takes place; implementing the instance ofthe virtual space to transmit game state information over a network to aclient computing platform associated with a player to facilitatepresentation of views of the virtual space to the player facilitateinteraction of the player in the online game in response to informationreceived over the network from the client computing platform associatedwith the player; managing an affiliation within the online game, whereinthe affiliation includes a discrete group of players, wherein the playeris included in the affiliation, and wherein the player is associatedwith communication permissions; receiving a request from the player toinitiate a communication to one or more other players in theaffiliation; determining whether to permit the communication based onthe communication permissions associated with the player in the firstaffiliation such that the determination of whether to permit thecommunication depends on whether the communication permissionsassociated with the player permit the player to communicate to the oneor more other players in the first affiliation, wherein thecommunication includes use of the communication medium external to theonline game; determining whether to permit the communication based onthe communication permissions associated with the player; and responsiveto a determination to permit the communication, initiate thecommunication to the one or more other players in the affiliationthrough the communication medium that is external to the online game.15. The method of claim 14, wherein the affiliation includesrelationships that have functional significance within the online game.16. The method of claim 14, wherein the request comprises a type ofcommunication medium external to the online game.
 17. The method ofclaim 14, wherein the communication medium comprises one of: voicemail,email, text message, sms, or social media post.
 18. The method of claim14, further comprising: storing information related to the affiliation,wherein the information related to the affiliation comprises informationrelated to the discrete group of players in the affiliation andinformation related to a set of statuses associated with theaffiliation.
 19. The method of claim 18, further comprising: storing aset of communication permissions associated with the set of statuses,wherein individual communication permissions indicates one or more typesof external communication mediums and one or more statuses.
 20. Themethod of claim 19, wherein determining that the communicationpermissions associated with the player permit the player to communicateto the one or more other players in the affiliation comprises:determining whether a particular communication permission associatedwith the player comprises one or more statuses associated with therespective one or more other players.
 21. The method of claim 20,wherein determining that the communication permissions associated withthe player permit the player to communicate to the one or more otherplayers in the affiliation comprises: determining whether thecommunication permissions associated with the player comprises aparticular type of communication medium.
 22. The method of claim 14,further comprising: responsive to a determination that the communicationpermissions associated with the player do not permit the player tocommunicate to the one or more other players in the affiliation,notifying the player that the communication is not permitted.
 23. Themethod of claim 22, further comprising: responsive to a determinationthat the player would like to request a second player to communicate tothe one or more other players in the affiliation, sending a request tothe second player to perform the communication.